Engagement Manager

Our client, a life sciences software company, is seeking an Engagement Manager to lead strategic customer relationships and drive successful deployments of their AI- and robotics-powered scientific platform. This role serves as the primary interface with executive stakeholders across major pharmaceutical organizations and plays a critical part in accelerating adoption, expansion, and long-term customer value.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own end-to-end customer relationships from pre-sale support through deployment, adoption, and post-sale growth.
• Partner closely with customer teams to assess scientific workflow challenges and translate needs into deployment roadmaps with clear milestones and success criteria.
• Manage multiple concurrent customer engagements, coordinating internally with engineering and product teams while aligning external stakeholders.
• Define and track customer success metrics, build business cases, and create scalable engagement playbooks that feed into ongoing product development.
• Navigate seamlessly between strategic discussions with senior executives (VP+) and detailed execution conversations with lab scientists, articulating business value and scientific impact.

What Were Looking For

• Technical foundation in biological or life sciences, including 2+ years of hands-on wet lab research experience in academia or industry.
• 3+ years of client-facing experience in management consulting (MBB/LEK preferred), biotech/biopharma business development, or technical deployment roles.
• Demonstrated success leading complex customer engagements requiring rapid decision-making, high-stakes coordination, and communication across all levels from scientists to executives.
• Strong executive presence with exceptional communication skills and the ability to translate between scientific requirements and commercial objectives.
• Startup mindset: thrives in ambiguity, moves quickly, takes ownership, and operates with minimal structure.
• Ability to work on-site 5 days per week in San Francisco with 25 to 50% travel to biopharma hubs (Boston, San Diego, Seattle, etc.).

Bonus Points

• Experience in early-stage or high-growth startups
• Exposure to robotics, hardware, or engineering teams